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National Book Critics Circle

American nonprofit organization

Summary

American nonprofit organization

Field	Value
logo	NBCC-Logo.jpg
map
map_size
abbreviation	NBCC
formation	1974
founder
founding_location	New York City
type	Nonprofit
registration_id
status
purpose
coordinates
membership	700+
leader_title
key_people	Heather Scott Partington
main_organ
funding
website

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is an American nonprofit organization (501(c)(3)) with more than 700 members. It is the professional association of American book review editors and critics, known primarily for the National Book Critics Circle Awards, a set of literary awards presented every March. These are for Criticism, Fiction, Autobiography, Biography, Nonfiction, Poetry and the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize.

The organization was founded in April 1974 in New York City by "John Leonard, Nona Balakian, and Ivan Sandrof intending to extend the Algonquin round table to a national conversation".

It was formally chartered in October 1974 as a New York state non-profit corporation, and the Advisory Board voted in November to establish annual literary awards.

In the first newsletter three months later, President Ivan Sandrof proclaimed the primary purpose "to improve and maintain the standards of literary criticism in an era of diminishing and deteriorating values". At that time there were 140 members, with outreach to freelance critics planned for that year.

NBCC first presented its Awards in January 1976 to books published during 1975 in four categories.

Only active review editors and reviewers may be voting members; they elect the 24 Directors who formally make nominations and alone make final selections each year.

A fifth award category for books (Autobiography/Biography) was added for 1983 and divided in two for 2005. Since 2005, there have been eight awards. Six National Book Critics Circle Awards recognize "best books" published in the United States during the preceding year in six categories: fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, biography, criticism, and poetry. Annually "the most accomplished reviewer" among its members is recognized by the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing (from 1991).

The NBCC also recognizes no more than one person or organization for "exceptional contributions to books" with the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award (from 1981 under more than one name).All eight awards are officially dated in the preceding year.

In 2017, the NBCC established the Emerging Critics Fellowship which provides early career literary critics with mentorships and professional development opportunities.

As a professional association, NBCC also works to improve the quality of reviews and provides services to its members.

Controversies

In 2020, more than half of the 24 board members resigned over conflicting views on how to address perceived racial disparities both on the board, and within the industry they represent. This demonstrative revolt has also been attributed to breaches in confidentiality stemming from leaked emails, and the dismissive, antagonistic communication style of a long-standing board member, Carlin Romano, whom half the board members describe as a bully. Overall, the mass resignations amount to a controversy seen as part of an industry-wide reckoning concerning the lack of diversity in publishing and literary awards.

First Board of Directors (1975)

President: Ivan Sandrof, The Worcester Telegram-Gazette
Vice President: Digby Diehl, Los Angeles Times
Secretary: Nona Balakian, The New York Times Book Review
Treasurer: Susan Heath, The Saturday Review
Barbara A. Bannon, Publishers Weekly
John Barkham, John Barkham Reviews
Alvin Beam, Cleveland Plain Dealer
Alice Cromie, Freelance Critic
Martha Duffy, Time
Eliot Fremont-Smith, The Village Voice
Elizabeth Hardwick, New York Review of Books
Herbert A. Kenny, Freelance Critic
John Leonard, The New York Times Book Review
Thorpe Menn, The Kansas City Star
Stanton Peckham, Denver Post
Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek
Larry Swindell, Philadelphia Inquirer
Jonathan Yardley, Miami Herald

Presidents

1974–1976: Ivan Sandrof, Worcester Telegram-Gazette
1976–1982: Eliot Fremont-Smith, Village Voice
1982–1984: Richard Locke, Vanity Fair
1984–1986: Brigitte Weeks, The Washington Post Book World
1986–1990: Nina King, Newsday
1990–1992: Jack Miles, Los Angeles Times
1992–1994: Herbert Liebowitz, Parnassus
1994–1996: Carlin Romano, Philadelphia Inquirer
1996–1998: Art Winslow, The Nation
1998–2000: Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
2001–2004: Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune
2004–2006: Rebecca T. Miller, Library Journal
2006–2008: John Freeman, Freelance Critic
2008–2011: Jane Ciabattari, Freelance Critic
2011–2013: Eric Banks, Bookforum
2013–2015: Laurie Muchnick, Bloomberg News
2015–2017: Tom Beer, Newsday
2017–2019: Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe
2019–2020: Laurie Hertzel, Minneapolis Star Tribune
2020-2020: Jane Ciabattari, Freelance Critic (acting)
2020–2022: David Varno, Publishers Weekly
2022–2023: Megan Labrise, Kirkus
2023-2025: Heather Scott Partington, Freelance Critic
2025-present: Adam Dalva, Freelance Critic

Service Award Winners

2022: Barbara Hoffert, former NBCC President
2023: Marion Winik, former NBCC Treasurer
2024: Lori Lynn Turner, Associate Director of The New School Creative Writing Program

References

https://www.bookcritics.org/awards/ Retrieved 20 Dec 2024.
National Book Critics Circle ('''NBCC'''): About: [https://www.bookcritics.org/about/ "Thirty-five Years of Quality Writing and Criticism"]. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
[http://bookcritics.org/images/uploads/vol1no1march011975.pdf ''The National Book Critics Circle Journal'' 1:1, March 1, 1975] {{Webarchive. link. (May 19, 2011 , NBCC. Retrieved 2012-02-02.)
[http://bookcritics.org/images/uploads/vol2no1spring1976.pdf ''The National Book Critics Circle Journal'' 2:1, Spring 1976] {{Webarchive. link. (2011-05-19 , NBCC. Retrieved 2012-02-02.)
[https://www.bookcritics.org/membership/ "Membership"] (no date), NBCC. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
[http://www.bookcritics.org/faqs "Frequently Asked Questions"] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-07-12 (no date), NBCC. Retrieved 2012-02-02.)
Varno, David. (2022-06-17). "A New Class of Emerging Critics".
(June 16, 2020). "The National Book Critics Circle Has Imploded". Vulture.
John Maher. (June 15, 2020). "NBCC Board Gutted as Fallout Over Leaked Emails, Race Issues Widens". Publishers Weekly.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

literary-criticism critics-associations professional-associations-based-in-the-united-states organizations-established-in-1974 501(c)(3)-organizations 1974-establishments-in-new-york-city algonquin-round-table national-book-critics-circle

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